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Comment by bdittmer | Hacker News Reader

This is why mutts are the best. Genetic diversity is good. Anecdotal, but growing up my two mutts lived to the ages of 16 and 18...well past the life expectancies you see in the purebred world.

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It's really a case-by-case basis thing.

I grew up with a mutt that I loved dearly. My parents got her because my Dad had read something or other in (I think) Popular Science about how the "dog of the future" would be a mutt, and the mutting of genes would suppress bad recessive traits. Then she got sick as a puppy, had an allergic reaction to her medication, and suffered permanent brain damage. That having been said, she was a perfect house pet; lived to be a very ripe old age and was good natured, just a little slow to respond to things.

If you're a breeder and there's something wrong in the genetics of the dog you're breeding, stop breeding that dog. But resolving genetic issues isn't as simple as just throwing mutts together; you really just roll the dice on a new set of strengths and weaknesses when you do that.

A mutt could still be the offspring of two pure bred dogs and have inherited genetic problems from both.

Exactly. Mutts may often be better than their purebred parents (by various objective and subjective criteria), but in the end it'll take a few generations of mutts and, well, survival of the fittest before you can see a general trend towards improvements in health and longevity.

Genetics are a lottery, starting with unhealthy parents the odds are against the offspring. It'll take generations for the population as a whole to move towards being healthier on average.

That's one of the reasons I like Australian Cattle dogs. They are still mutty enough that there aren't a whole lot of genetic issues in the breed.

Of course, they are also very smart, tough, low-maintenance, and tend to live for a very long time. Some are a little over-active, but mine will happily lay in her bed all day and sleep, as long as she gets a good walk in the morning.

Well, the only problem with mutts (for me) is that you have no good idea on what size they will have as adults.

Living in an apartment I can't really have a big dog and by getting a breed dog (even if it's not really pure bread) I know it will not get too big for the space I have available.

I would rephrase this. The concern as an apartment dweller is less one of size, and more one of energy. I have a Bernese Mountain Dog (currently 110lbs/50kg) he's a great apartment dog, because he's low energy. Other residents in the building have much smaller dogs that pose a real challenge because the energy level doesn't match the space available

You are right, that's also an issue in my mind. A small, energetic and noisy dog wouldn't be a proper pet for an apartment as well.

Then again, it's exactly why I feel safer getting a breed dog that fits the basic requisites. In my parents home - that is quite big and with a lot of open space - we've got a mutt and we were very happy with him, but we didn't really have any constrains about how he would turn out to be as an adult.

For apartment dwellers I always recommend getting an older dog. Puppies are cute, but they're honestly a lot of work and generally high-energy. After just one or two years most dogs will settle down and you'll have a very good idea of what you're going to get. The adult dogs are perfectly trainable. Most people who get puppies also have no actual skill in how to train dogs, so they're basically rolling the dice on what their dog's personality is going to be like.

Rescue organizations (in the US at least) are a great place to find dogs. The dogs have often been in a domestic setting with a foster owner. The history of the dog is usually known. You'll be adopting dogs in the 2-8yr range and you'll have a great idea of what you're getting.

It can take a while to find the right dog, but it should. It's a decade-long commitment.

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